1981 VW 1.6 Turbo Diesel FULLY RESTORED Show Winning Rabbit Caddy Pickup Truck

Description for Volkswagen Rabbit 1981

This truck, he "Truckdoza" as I've called it has been my project for the past 15 years but I think it's finally time to move on. I have two kids under 2 years old. A 2 seat vehicle doesn't really work with my lifestyle anymore. It was a project truck that I built to drive across the country, nd drive I did. Focus was on reliability and keeping things easy to work on. I put neversieze on bolts all the time,powder coatedpretty much any tin I could get off so it wouldn't rust and put in tons and tons of sound deadening.It's in great shape, eady to roll just needs a new home. For those who like details, hese videos go through everything for about 25 minutes.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKsF5jeTB64https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkCFQVOZjGMHere's a fun travel video I made of a road trip in this truck (you can see why I love it so much)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdHfN1-aIroI'll try and describe the mods, ut I've made so many it's literally too much to list. The short story - I went through pretty much everything and either replaced it, ebuilt it, r improved it.Engine: 1.6 Turbo Diesel. Garrett T3, ead Studs, ntercooler. Completely machined and redone when I rebuilt it 60K ago. Rebuilt injection pump and set to factory spec. Boost currently at factory spec. 3" Stainless custom exhaust from turbo to tailpipe. Even put a "V Band" clamp to hold it on so one bolt and hangers you can drop the exhaust right out. Rerouted the fuel filter to the passenger wheel well. Moved the washerreservoirup intotherain tray (although it leaks now, eeds to be resealed). Tucked all the wiring to look clean and upgraded connectors where possible. New timing belt about 20K ago. Super HUGE radiator from a rally car (custom made) with double fan.Transmission: Clutch replaced last year with OEM grade hardware. Replaced Diesel "FN" transmission with a GTI close ratio to make towing easier as I was pulling a camper with it. Transmission works great although 5th gear is not very "Tall". I have the original transmission to either do a 5th gear swap, se as a core for a fresh build, r swap back in if you wish.Suspension: Stock front springs & struts (all new). Stock leaves in the back. Powdercoated pretty much everything (Axles, eaf springs, ontrol arms), pper strut bar, ower strut bar. Air bags in the back to help haul loads. ( an electric compressor and solenoids and you can raise/lower from the cab). All front bushings replaced with polyurethane. Front and rear sway bars installed.Exterior: New tires with only 3K on them. Painted LD7X Platinum Grey Metallic by a professional painter. Installed reflective black pinstripe, ailgate letters, nd bumper stripes. Custom rear bumper with a hidden class 2 receiver underneath the license plate. Front bumper pushed in to enhance looks but maintain ventilation. Custom lights in rear bumper to aid in backing up into dark camp sites at night time. Had Line-X sprayed in the bed so I could haul with no issues. Stuff works great. Grill in excellent shape, Ice cub tray" style. Interior: Dash swap from 1984 Jetta Turbo Diesel with two gloveboxes. Swap included door cards, arpet, enter console, ir conditioning system. Seats from an unknown MK2 so I could have height adjustment on the drivers seat. Dynomat and Dynoliner head to toe. It's as quiet as it can get for a 34 year old Diesel. Custom headliner (I cut the roof off of another truck, lipped it upside down, ade a mold, aid fiberglass, nd built a custom scalloped fiberglass liner to give more headroom. Installed LED overhead lights in blue to match the gauges and covered with carpet. Installed greenfluorescentlights under the dash to match the stock green dash lights. Eclipse head unit with 400W (I think) JBL amplifier powering 2 8" subwoofers that drive pretty hard. Subs in custom boxes designed to fit behind the seats. Also made a shelf to hold misc. items and the air pressure gauges.Electrical: Standard Alternator, ie Hard Platinum Gel Battery, pgraded electrical components throughout the truck including building new harnesses for the headlights, C and additional gauges. Tucked all the wires. All the new stuff was soldiered connections. Added gauges to dash to monitor engine hours, oost, yrometer, PM (run off of alternator W terminal and dakota digital decoder), il pressure, ater temp, nd volts. Added a switch panel which controls subwoofer, ood lighting, ackup lights, ir compressor, rain horn (yeah 150+DB Hornblaster's Conductor Special), nd air bag adjustment. Added gauges to monitor air pressure in tank as well as bags.Condition - Described some of the flaws in the condition tab. It's a 34 year old truck, t has its quirks. I've done my best to cover the notable ones in the videos and description here. Never seen a winter since 2003, olid as a rock truck. No rust, o bondo in it. If you want one for your collection, o show, r just drive for a long, ong time, his is the one for you. This truck even got selected for "Top Dawg" competition in 2009 which was a super elite show class for supermodified VW's. I have done my best to represent the vehicle fairly, ut vehicle is sold AS-IS with no warranty expressed or implied.If you desire any clarification please let me know I'll do my best to answer questions. (Note - a few of the undercarriage shots are a few years old since I have not had it up on a lift for a while. Still great under there just dirtier, anted to show the exhaust, uel tank, nd horn configuration)Included with the truck I have a fiberglass cap that I'll throw in if you want, cap tent, urtains, nd also a few boxes of maintenance parts (oil filters, eals, tc.) and some miscellaneous trim stuff including fluids and a bunch of bits for the truck (extra fabric that I used, tc.). Also comes with parts to convert the cooling system to an "expansion tank" style system, nd of course a spare tire on a powder coated steel rim.I'm happy to answer any questions if you have them let me know! Thanks a lot - Garry. (darthgarry on vwvortex and vwcaddy.com)